Peristyle house with the Dionysus mosaic

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Historical model of the representative Roman city villa with the Dionysus mosaic, Römisch-Germanisches Museum Cologne

The peristyle house with the Dionysus mosaic is a Roman house, the remains of which were found in 1941 when an air raid shelter, the cathedral bunker, was excavated near Cologne Cathedral .

The House

Mosaic, c. 220/230 AD

The fame and importance of the house are mainly based on the large mosaic that covered the floor of the dining room and is called the "Dionysus mosaic" after its central motif, the pleasure god Dionysus . Because of this find, the city of Cologne decided to build the new museum for the returned ancient treasures, which was planned after the city's destruction in World War II , which is now the Roman-Germanic Museum . In addition, the house is one of the few Roman houses of the Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium , whose floor plan is largely known. It is an example of a house in the Germanic provinces that was built in a more Mediterranean style.

The large and representative house, which took up an entire block ( insula ), was oriented north-south and was close to the banks of the Rhine . In the middle it had a peristyle in which there was also a fountain and around which all rooms of the house were grouped. Several construction phases could be distinguished. The house was probably built in the Claudian period (around 50 AD or shortly thereafter), the second construction phase probably dates back to 80 AD in the Flavian period. Around 230 AD the whole house was completely redesigned. During this time, a large triclinium was built in the central axis of the peristyle , which was decorated with the Dionysus mosaic. The room had previously had a mosaic, the remains of which could still be found. Some other rooms in the house were also fitted with mosaics and some were decorated with wall paintings , of which only small remains were found. Some rooms had hypocausts . There were stores or stores at the front of the house.

After almost six generations had used the city villa, the house burned down in December 355 AD during an attack by the Franks on Roman Cologne.

Dionysus mosaic

The Dionysus mosaic is decorated with 27 multicolored medallions that show scenes around Dionysus , but also the seasons, birds and fruits. In total, the 70 m² mosaic consists of around 1.5 million tesserae made of natural stone, glass and clay with a thickness of 9 mm.

The mosaic that gave the house its name was covered with sand for protection after the excavation. Today the mosaic is the central monument of the Roman-Germanic Museum. The in situ mosaic rests on a special construction supported by nine supports. At the end of the 50s it was covered with a synthetic resin layer for reasons of protection and to make the colors look fresher.

At the World Economic Summit in 1999, the exhibition room with the mosaic served as a dining room for the heads of state and government of the G8 countries. The mosaic was covered with a heavy acrylic sheet for protection. The insurance value of the mosaic is 15 million euros (2007).

Damage from the hurricane Kyrill 2007

Covering the mosaic after the storm damage

Hurricane Kyrill tore off the wooden cover of the fountain on the Domplatte in the night of January 18-19, 2007 . The slab with wooden beams and boards weighing up to 70 kilograms , hit by a gust , hurled across the Roncalliplatz into the pane of the museum, broke through the glass front, fell on the Dionysus mosaic and damaged it considerably. Specialists from the Luxembourg National Museum and the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn examined the damage. Numerous pieces of the mosaic were partly broken, various medallions damaged, but not the central motif with the drunken Dionysus himself. The experts called in for the restoration, the Erfurt University of Applied Sciences professor from the Conservation and Restoration Department, Christoph Merzenich, and two restorers from the renowned Istituto Superiore per la Conservatione ed il Restauro in Rome, found further damage when all 1.5 million mosaic stones were knocked off. The tesserae had become detached or loosened in around 120 places and showed abrasions up to three millimeters deep. Visitors to the Roman-Germanic Museum were able to experience the restoration work that followed, which was completed in July 2008. The total damage to the mosaic reached a seven-figure sum. On the anniversary of the hurricane damage, January 18th, the restoration was extensively celebrated with the Dionysus Festival, an evening of remembrance for Cologne with wine, music, readings, reports and encounters.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ (rr): Italians should secure mosaic . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger No. 75 Thursday, March 29, 2007 page 35 “Cologne”; Matthias Pesch: Storm damage to the mosaic greater than expected. Restorers examine Roman artwork. Many stones are probably loose . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger No. 137 Saturday / Sunday, 16./17. June 2007 page 35 “Cologne”; Christian Deppe: Stone by stone , p. 1 and mosaic damage is bigger than assumed. Restoration of Dionysus and his entourage has begun . In: Kölnische Rundschau No. 137 Saturday, June 16, 2007 page 37 “Cologne”; MAP “Many hands, many stones”. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger No. 145 Tuesday, June 26, 2007 p. 23 “Cologne” City of Cologne
  3. ↑ Dionysus mosaic restored. Press release. City of Cologne - Office for Press and Public Relations, July 18, 2008, accessed on June 23, 2019 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 26 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 30 ″  E